Post by Stanford University Graduate School of Business

“Businesses, similar to infrastructure, have underlying structures that determine whether they will endure.” Sam McColgan, MBA ’26, trained as a civil engineer because he wanted to “build things that were tangible and lasting.” But after working on construction sites, he gained an even broader vision of what he could build, and he’s now focusing on the architecture of successful companies. In his native Wales, McColgan began his career working across improvement and strategy roles at Skanska. But there was a disconnect. “I realized I was more interested in the strategic decisions that dictated what and why we were building rather than just the implementation,” he says. A bout of long COVID gave McColgan time to consider other career options, and by chance, he picked up a book on investing that would provide an answer. “The public markets offered exactly the kind of analytical freedom and creativity I had been looking for,” he says. Coming to Stanford GSB, McColgan set out to prepare himself for work at a large investment firm. But once he was here, he heard a different message: “Don’t wait to pursue what it is you really want to do,” he says. With the encouragement of mentors and classmates, “Launching my own investment firm began to feel like the natural next step.” With Cadoc Capital, McColgan is ready to invest in businesses and the builders who are raising them up. “I feel substantially better equipped to build,” he says. “Stanford is the best place to study business because it teaches you about people. If I can understand the leaders of companies better than others, that can be an edge.” https://brnw.ch/21x3oKa